Vaclav Koranda, Vice President Human Resources, T-SYSTEMS MALAYSIA SDN. BHD.
1. How is the HR role evolving and contributing positively to organisational vision and strategy?
The current role of HR in organisations has evolved from being a service provider to become a source of competitive advantage. This evolution will require an entirely new skill set for HR professionals to acquire in order to be able to contribute to their organisations in a more strategic way that will be largely driven by data. They will have to be able to identify every impact point of, and to, the organisation’s human capital in order to attract and retain the best talent. Predictive talent management, supported by AI and Big Data, will replace the traditional, passive, transaction-oriented HR department.
2. How does HR Analytics help in decision making?
HR analytics gives a solid base for decision making rather than commonly used ‘gut feelings’. It helps HR to develop a reputation of a business function that can quantify and measure its success as marketing and finance do. Most importantly, data on employee behaviour and mindset can help develop strategies to maximise business outcomes by improving various aspects of employee experience.
3. How do internal communications and employee engagement help boost employee morale?
Employee engagement stands in an unspecified relationship to employee morale and job satisfaction. Watson Wyatt (then) found that organisations with highly loyal and dedicated employees outperformed organisations with low commitment by 47% in their 2000 study and even by 200% in another 2002 study. No wonder that employee engagement practices have since then been well established in the management of human resources and of internal communications.
4. Why should an organisation invest in the development of human capital?
Investment is usually made based on a business case, expecting a certain return. That is why HR has become obsessed with ROI recently. However, I don’t favour the concept of 'human resources' or 'human capital', as something businesses have to 'invest' in. We are all people, not resources, nor capital. Businesses exist to create value. Value is created by people working together – so for me, it is logical to give back some of the value to the people that created it.
5. What are the current trends in HR and how do you see this changing in the coming years?
There is a strong trend nowadays to implement new technologies like AI and big data in HR. This will transform HR completely and enable it to contribute and add value to the business more than ever before. Predictive analysis rather than plain hindsight will propel the ability of HR to deliver employee experience into new levels.
6. What is your advice in handling social stigmas and bias in the workplace effectively?
As responsible employers, we should support open mindset and fight bias and labelling by all means. However, we should also encourage employees that feel being stigmatised or treated with bias, to act against it. Just recently, I read an interesting interview with a man that was looked down on because of his race. He said that initially, other people discriminated against him, however, when he smiled and moved forward, things changed completely. So my advice is to do the same – if you feel being treated like the odd (wo)man out, smile at others and make positive interactions with them. They will change their mind sooner than you think
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